i have reached the point where i have a TON of emails stored in one profile with multiple email accounts. it is definitely time for a refresh. i want to start with a new profile (but want to continue being able to access my 'old' emails). is there a way to create the new profile with the same list of email accounts (all server settings, folders, etc.)? or do i have to manually add account after account, modifying all server settings, creating new folders, etc.?

thunderbird -Pcreated new profilecancelled setting upcopied all files from old profile to new profile EXCEPT mail and imapmail foldersran thunderbird with new profile

everything worked except for my new problem:the new profile doesn't have the emails, so it tried to redownload all from the email server

the 'pointers' weren't set to current 'no new email' statusis there a way to do this, or do i have to manually(webmail) log in to each account and delete all messages, THEN run thunderbird to start fresh?

it is a POP account and with the emails not existing in the new profile (because i intentionally didn't copy the mail+imapmail folders), thunderbird assumed all of the messages on the server are new to me and started to download thousands of emails from all accounts (in order to get up to date).

Ah, OK. You don't have to delete any messages on the server but to stop them from being downloaded to Thunderbird's Inbox folder you can move the message out of the server inbox. Just close Thunderbird, then access the web mail page for the account using a browser and COPY messages from the server inbox to another folder. You could create a new folder for the purpose, possibly naming it OLDMESSAGES or the like.) Start Thunderbird and you'll get only new messages downloaded.

After copying the messages to a new folder on the server, DELETE the messages from the server inbox folder. That way there will be nothing for Thunderbird to download when you first start it up. Only new messages will download after you take that step.